I still find it easier to write code in Notepad than using all these fancy-dancy coding programs. I’ve been using Dreamweaver a little. Of course my knowledge range of HTML is rather limited.
Are there any others who still like to code in Notepad? If not, what is a great, easy-to-use program for the non hardcore coders? Should I keep using Dreamweaver?
I never really worked with Dreamweaver, Golive or other stuff like that. In between my websites often use special frameworks (wordpress, cms-systems etc), so these complex gui for web-design often aren’t appropriate anyway. As the most modern framework are heavily – as far as design is concerned – css-driven, i use “cssedit” a lot – or tinker with the code of the framework …
As the original hand coder that inspired the mighty lechuck.
I still love using notepad because it shows that you still have all the knowledge of the tags, functions, and syntax of what your building. Knowing the syntax inside and out comes in handy when trying to debug problems.
Dreamweaver does add some benefits when working professionally with web design, and has come far from the messy gui web editor of it’s youth. It allows for real-time previews of most pages, I usually work in split mode so I can work in text then check it in the design view. Code Completion and Syntax Highlighting also helps out a great deal.
Dreamweaver is good for getting stuff done quickly in a production environment.
However for those who hate all that GUI, after a while I grew out of notepad’s functionality and found that Textpad (http://www.textpad.com/) has alot of added value like syntax highlighting for many languages and tabbed files(so you can work on a few files at once).
Notepad still is the best test of your abilities and anyone learning the basics should use this, not Dreamweaver. That’s cheating.
And for the Mac-User out there: BBEdit and its little brother textwrangler do a hell of a job in supporting coding in many different languages – html, css, php, you name it…
Dreamweaver is not a good tool for someone like me, who is more of a developer than a designer. I know markup inside-out. But you can do way better than Notepad!
Peter, I’ve used BBEdit and TextWrangler in the past, but they’ve been replaced by TextMate for me now! Its the best on the Mac.
On Windows, I think they say the best is UltraEdit. Dunno though.
I’ve actually started to use Dreamweaver more, but moreso for the site management tools. If I’m doing web design in Dreamweaver, I rarely use any of the components. I just stick to the code view window and make use of the syntax highlighting and code blocking which I find extremely helpful.
I’ve been using Notepad++ for awhile now. Its got a variety of features as well as a number of plugins from the website that you can use to customize the program. I find it quite comfortable to use and its pretty light on system resources as well. Its been my “Notepad Replacement” for quite some time.
(Mac) TextMate (Windows) E-Texeditor
When I had used to use something before TextMate it was Adobe GoLive and Notepad++.
The best thing about Adobe GoLive was when you moved files around in a project it update the link. I sometimes had to maintain beastly sites with links everywhere.
I’m a strong advocate of TextMate but in rare cases Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive after some practical functionality
One of my favorite editors for html is an executable that comes with Excel & Office. To use it, open Excel, go to Tools, Macro, Microsoft Script Editor.
Alternatively, you’ll find it in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11 and the file name is called mse7.exe. The path and exect file name may depend on what version of Office you have. Try it out!
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